Development

The map was designed by John "Poor Yurik" Attea. Attea decided on the setting of the map based on a wish list of sorts that Minh Le had regarding maps that he would've liked to see in the mod. John Attea thought it would be a nice gift of sorts as a "thank you" for creating the mod. For the general layout of the map, he took inspiration from the map Razor Ice from Rainbow Six.[1] The skybox of the map was created by "P@RaNoiD".[2]

The initial appearance of the map was in beta 3.0. It was updated only once, for beta 4.0. The update introduced several texture changes in the interior of the ship. A hostage rescue zone was also added inside the ship and an area located inside in the front of the ship was blocked off. The area by the hostages and Terrorist spawn was also made considerably brighter. Finally two rooms before the bridge were redesigned into one bigger room and the two terrorist spawn points that existed in this room were removed. This meant the amount of Terrorist spawn points was reduced from 12 to 10, while the Counter-Terrorists still had 12 spawn points.

No further updates were made to the map and it would make its last appearance in beta 5.2

Tactics

Because the map is small and easily predictable, be stealthy in your approach of killing the Terrorists and rescuing the hostages. Try to stick to your team members and have at least two CTs have the tactical shield. This is the best defense against flashbang and/or smoke grenade based ambushes. It is also suggested to have night vision goggles to make sure that the current or the next room is fully clear of Terrorists.

Watch out for the approaching CTs and stay alert if they should become stealthy in entering the ship. They may be heavily armed and the CTs may attempt to rush to your position after throwing a few grenades. In this case, retreat and counter them with your own weapons or if you are lucky, fire continuously with your fellow team members. If this works, then the CTs may become disorganized, allowing the terrorists to gain the upper hand for the round. If all fails, then head back to the room with the hostages and wait for the CTs. Sometimes, a Terrorist may be able to escape the bullets from the Counter-Terrorists and thus giving the terrorist the ability to guard the hostage rescue zone, located in the very middle of the ship.

It appears that the ship was used to haul cargo, or it's a military naval ship, instead of existing as a passenger cruise ship, as evidenced by the lack of luxurious facilities. This is evidenced with the sight of sonar equipment within one of the rooms.

Similar to cs_iraq, there are photos of Saddam Hussein in the sleeping quarters and the pool table room. Strangely, the picture on the pool table room is placed on a microwave oven.

Due to the steep ramps, hostages have difficulties moving upwards and require to be pushed by human players. Furthermore, the railing is placed so low that hostages may fall off.